1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to systems, methods, protocols, apparatus and related software for high-speed data communications. More particularly, the invention relates to the transport of digital data between communications hardware in accordance with a differential serial Internet Protocol (IP). Accordingly, the general objects of the invention are to provide novel systems, methods, apparatus and software of such character.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the rise of the information age in recent years, digital communications hardware has become much more sophisticated and specialized in an effort to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for faster delivery of an increasing number of information transfer options. For example, the typical modern communications system may include one or more signal receivers, decoders, modulators, data servers, streaming video servers, transaction, billing and conditional access processors, communication controllers and/or broadband media routers. Broadband media routers and/or Transport Multiplexers (TMXs) are particularly important and are generally used to multiplex data streams or to re-multiplex data streams that have previously been multiplexed. In particular, broadband media routers are used to groom multiple transport streams, such as MPEG2 (Moving Picture Experts Group) encoded video streams, and to thereby produce output streams for video appliances such as digital televisions, personal versatile recorders (PVR), and the like. The grooming provided by a broadband media router can include, for example, transcoding, advertisement insertion, adding IP opportunistic data, re-multiplexing incoming services to provide a new channel line-up, etc. While these features make such routers important devices in modem digital communications systems, conventional routers impose serious limitations on the rate of information transfer through these communications systems.
Broadband media routers typically comprise various hardware components and, since it is necessary to communicate signals between these various components, this hardware must be communicatively linked together. These components are typically linked with the use of a backplane which is a circuit board that serves to interconnect such components situated on shelves within a rack or chassis. Custom backplane designs have been the typical solution for interconnecting components in a particular way in order to achieve the desired functionality. Such custom designs incorporate discrete hardware to send data in parallel form between the different components (e.g., circuit boards) connected by the backplane. While effective to a degree, these custom designs are expensive, single use solutions and are, therefore, neither efficient nor cost-effective. They, additionally, are bandwidth limited, which poses limitations on the systems with which they are used.
There is, accordingly, a need in the art for novel methods, systems and apparatus that obviate the related art requirements for and limitations of custom backplane designs and their associated discrete hardware. The present invention provides a solution having the aforementioned and other advantages.